SHORT SUMMARY
Ophelia is a painting by British artist Sir John Everett Millais in the collection of Tate Britain,
London. It depicts Ophelia, a character from William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, singing before
she drowns in a river.
The painting depicts Ophelia singing while floating in a river just before she drowns. The scene
is described in one of the scenes (Act IV, Scene VII) of Hamlet in a speech by Queen Gertrude.
In the picture we can see out of her mind with grief, Ophelia has been making garlands of
wildflowers. She climbs into a willow tree overhanging a brook to dangle some from its
branches, and a bough breaks beneath her. She lies in the water singing songs, as if unaware
of her danger ("incapable of her own distress"). Her clothes, trapping air, have allowed her to
temporarily stay afloat ("Her clothes spread wide, / And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her
up."). But eventually, "her garments, heavy with their drink, / Pull'd the poor wretch from her
melodious lay" down "to muddy death".
Ophelia's death has been praised as one of the most poetically written death scenes
in literature.
Ophelia's pose—her open arms and upwards gaze—also resembles traditional portrayals
of saints or martyrs, but has also been interpreted as erotic.
Ophelia is one of the most popular Pre-Raphaelite works in the Tate collection. Millais’s image
of the tragic death of Ophelia, as she falls into the stream and drowns, is one of the best-known
illustrations from Shakespeare’s play Hamlet.
THE INSPIRATION
Ophelia is a character in Hamlet, by William Shakespeare. She is driven mad when her father,
Polonius, is murdered by her lover, Hamlet. She dies while still very young, suffering from grief
and madness. The events shown in Millais’s Ophelia are not actually seen on stage. Instead,
they are referred to in a conversation between Queen Gertrude and Ophelia’s brother Laertes.
Gertrude describes how Ophelia fell into the river while picking flowers and slowly drowned,
singing all the while.
SYMBOLISM
The weeping willow tree leaning over Ophelia is a symbol of forsaken love. Crow flowers in the
foreground look similar to buttercups and symbolizes ingratitude or childishness. The nettles
that are growing around the willow’s branches represent pain. The daisies floating near
Ophelia’s right hand represent innocence. The pink roses have symbolic meanings such as
youth, love and beauty. Violet as symbol of faithfulness and can also be chastity and death in
the young. The meadowsweet flowers signify the futility of Ophelia’s death. Pansies mean love
in vain. Ophelia’s sorrow is symbolized by the pheasant’s eye (red thingy) and also the fritillary.